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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

UK: Rapper Lowkey 'uses Jewish slur' in performance on BBC

The BBC are facing a fresh Jew-hatred controversy after a rap artist performed a track on a popular Radio 1 show which appeared to contain the lyric: "Power to victims of this globalised kosher nostra".

Lowkey - who is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - also ranted against "zombies and Zionists" during his live appearance on the station's Charlie Sloth show on Saturday night.

After performing his "freestyle" 15-minute rap on the show, Mr Sloth hailed the content of the song, saying: "I feel like I've just been to university for five years".

"Kosher nostra" has typically been used as an antisemitic term to describe an alleged Jewish ruling elite.

However a Radio 1 spokesperson told the JC that Lowkey insisted he had used the term ‘cosa nostra’ which he said "is commonly meant as a general reference to ‘the Mafia’."

Lowkey's reference to "zombies and Zionists" also came during his appearance on Saturday's show in lyrics which attacked an alleged powerful elite of "neo-cons".

The rapper declined to comment on his use of the word 'Zionists' in the rap.

Footage of the performance has been shared on YouTube with the lyrics being praised by pro-Jeremy Corbyn website The Skwawkbox.

Lowkey, whose real name is Kareem Dennis, has previously made his anti-Zionist stance public on tracks such as Long Live Palestine, in which he sings: "You say you know about the Zionist lobby. But you put money in their pocket when you're buying their coffee. Talking about revolution, sitting in Starbucks."

In 2009 Lowkey, whose mother is Iraqi and father English. was questioned at Tel Aviv airport as he entered Israel. He said at the time he had received a "miniscule fraction of the degradation Palestinian people are subjected to on a daily basis”.